Honey Whiskey (A Bastards MC Novel) (14 page)

"Why don't you come with me
tomorrow?"

"I will, as long as you can promise me that
there will be hot men I can stare at."

"There will be tons! Why do you
think I love my job?" She shot me a look that said I was crazy.
"Hot, sweaty, beautiful, and kicking the shit out of each other
while I yell at them. What more could you want?" The thought was so
obnoxious that I couldn’t hold in my laugh and she joined me,
shaking her head.

Rob came into the room, stopping
dead. "Yoah cookin' suppah, L.K.? No shit!" He smiled. "Thank God.
I couldn’t handle takeout again." He grabbed a beer from the fridge
and then pulled a chair from the table, turning it and straddling
it as he sat. "What ahh you two hens cackling about?"

Cris rolled her eyes, trying to
look annoyed, and smirked. "I want Jo to come down to the gym
tomorrow. I started a new class last week and think she should join
us.” She winked over at me. “I think I’m wearing her
down.”

"Not happening."

I looked up from the tomato I was
slicing, sure I'd missed a step. Cris jumped in before I could, the
glare in her eyes matching her icy tone. "I'm not gonna put her in
the ring against a pro on her first day out, just teach her the
basics."

Rocker took a sip from his bottle
and shook his head. "Ovah my dead body."

“Fuckin’ Christ, Robbie. The girl
doesn’t even know a single defensive stance, let alone any of the
aim points.” Her eyes narrowed further. “You really don’t think
it's a good idea for her learn what to do if someone attacks
her?”

Taking another sip, he
swirled his bottle as he listened to her. His eyes rolled as her
arms flew through the air in her dramatic fashion, and he leaned
forward as he answered. “I said
no
.”

I slammed the knife down on the
counter, and they both turned to look at me. "I don't remember
anyone asking you."

He shrugged dismissively. "You think I'm gonna
let ya go get yoah ass handed to ya and then explain to Mateo why
his woman is covered in bruises? I don't fuckin' think
so."

I picked the knife up and pointed
at him. "Fine, then you can take me to your gym and teach
me."

A look I didn't recognize crossed
his features and he swallowed hard as Cris broke into hysterics.
Once she composed herself, she smiled at me. "That won't work, Jo.
Rocker doesn't hit girls." Her voice took on an odd tone as she
turned to look at him, eyes sparkling. "He refuses to hit anyone
that has a pussy, even if they are really, really naughty and
begging for it."

Not backing down like I thought he
would, Rob shrugged again. "You knew I wasn't into that shit, that
it’s not my thing. I told you if you wanted someone to tie ya up
and spank ya, you shoulda been with Hawk, not me."

Cris answered with a laugh
that was sharp and didn’t hold a spec of humor. "And I told you I
needed
you
to do it. I didn’t want Hawk, dammit. I wanted you. But, no!
You didn’t trust me enough to even try.” She slammed a small fist
onto the table. “Besides, I’m pretty sure I lack what he requires
in his partners. Do I look like one of his chubby
subbies?"

Chubby subbies? Good Christ! I
would never look at Hawk the same way again, and I let my thoughts
wander to a place I didn’t want them to be as I wondered if I was
Hawk’s kind of chubby. The thought turned my stomach.

“Oh, my God! How would you even
know that?” I groaned, closing my eyes and trying to fight the
embarrassment I felt flooding into my face. "Thank you both for
that wonderful image! Unless I can figure out a way to boil my
brain, I’m gonna be stuck with it for the rest of my life! Jesus,
is nothing private anymore?" Leaning my head onto the counter next
to the cutting board, I let the coolness of the marble soothe my
warm cheeks. Some things, you just can’t unhear.

They were both looking at me when
I stood and opened my eyes a few seconds later. Rob was trying to
hide his amused smile behind his bottle, but Cris was gaping
obnoxiously as if I had two heads. “What?” I snapped, harsher than
I meant to.

Cris shook her head and cleared
her expression, making her face go almost blank, but I could see a
smile threatening to break on her lips. Rocker, on the other hand,
gave me a shit-eating grin, his dimples deep. “Hate to break it to
ya, kid, but I’ve lived with Mateo in one way or another for ovah
half my life. Not all of those places had two bedrooms, and if they
did, the walls were pretty fuckin’ thin.” He paused, taking a long
swig while I scanned my mind, vaguely worried about what he might
have heard. His eyes met mine. “I can promise you, L.K., I know
moah about him,” he stole a glance at Cris, “and his…” he cleared
his throat, obviously uncomfortable in front of Matty’s sister,
“preferred activities than I evah wanted to.”

I felt the color drain from my
face, embarrassment momentarily replaced with shock. Surprisingly,
Cris laughed, not looking uncomfortable in the least. “What he
means, Joey, is that we all know just how kinky my brother likes to
get—at least, we’ve all heard the stories.” Stories? Christ! What
was it with these people and their stories? I felt my lips purse in
agitation, the knowledge that I didn’t know what she was talking
about leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Pausing for a second at my
response, Cris smirked and raised an eyebrow. “While I obviously
don’t know for sure, I think it’s pretty safe to assume,” she held
up her hands in surrender, rushing on, “by the fact you’re still
together, that you also like a bit of kink. There’s no need to get
embarrassed by a little BDSM talk.”

“
So, I’m guilty by association?” I
glowered at her. “And, I’m not embarrassed,” I added
childishly.

She giggled. “The way you’re
acting like a sheltered and innocent school girl is a little
amusing. In fact, I think it’s fuckin’ hilarious.” She wiggled her
eyebrows suggestively and beamed at me.

Rocker tipped his head, as if
trying to work out something she’d said, and spoke before I could
form a retort. “No. That’s not what I meant.” He gave her a dirty
look, obviously as irritated with her as I was, before turning to
me. “It’s moah than that. I don’t evah want you to think that
anythin’ in this club is private, because it ain’t. We all know
things about the others that they feel they have to hide from the
resta the world. That’s how we build trust, how we survive. We may
give each otha a hahd time, but we’ll defend each otha to the
grave.”

He sighed and sat back. “There ah
some things about us that you’ll learn early on ‘cause no one tries
to hide ‘em. Hawk likes to dominate fat women, and his job is to
protect the club and its members at all costs. Yet, he hates
violence and is always the first to try talk me down. Princess,” he
jerked a thumb towards Cris, “wants someone to tie her up and give
her the spanking she so obviously deserves, but if a man messes
with her any othah time, she’ll fuckin’ wreck him. Dean is a cocky
fuck that will screw anythin’ that shows interest ‘cause he’s
trying to forget his ol’ lady walked, but he hates it and wants to
find a woman to go home to. And me? I’m a miserable fuckin’ prick
that won’t hit women,” he looked back at Cris, the corners of his
lips quirking in teasing laughter, “even when they’re begging for
it, but won't hesitate to throw the first punch any othah
time.”

Emotions warred within me. I
didn’t know if I was shocked at how he listed off their
eccentricities as if they were normal things everyone talked about
all the time, intrigued to know more about these people that meant
so much to the man I loved, or if I wanted to laugh because every
single thing Rob just said was pretty frigging funny. They may be
freaks, but even I had to admit that they were
fascinating.

“So, if I’ll learn all that early
on, what juicy tid-bits will I pick up later?” I smiled as I
focused my attention back to the vegetables in front of me, picking
up a freshly washed green pepper and slicing it down the
middle.

I felt eyes on me and I looked up,
surprised to see that Rob’s face had hardened a bit, all trace of
humor gone. “Some secrets you may never know, L.K. It isn’t
personal, so don’t take it that way. We’re a tight group, most of
us have been Bastards since we were kids. With that history comes
severe loyalty. Not one of us will tell someone else’s story unless
we’re told we can.”

As he offered me a small smile, I
remembered a conversation I’d had with Matty last summer where he’d
said almost exactly the same thing. ‘It’s not my story to tell,’
he’d told me of Rob’s time in the youth center. Loyal to the core.
These men, hell, this whole group of people, were hard to figure
out. They surprised me at every turn. As I started to chop the
pepper, I realized that I was relatively certain they would never
act how I expected them to.

Chapter 14

Jo

I tried to convince Cris to stay
for supper, since that had been the original plan all along, but
she swore she was exhausted. I wasn’t convinced. The tension
between the she and Rob was so thick it would take more than a
knife to cut through it. I don’t know who seemed more relieved as I
walked her to the elevator, but they both acted as if a huge weight
had been lifted from their shoulders. With a promise of, “I’ll see
you tomorrow, wear comfortable, but form fitting, clothes. Work on
him tonight, will ya?” just as the doors were closing, Cris was
gone and I was alone with my roommate for the first time in
days.

I smiled to myself as I walked
back into the kitchen. Rob had taken my place by the stove, searing
the chicken cutlets. He didn’t look like a rough and rugged biker,
but an off duty chef instead. I walked around the counter, facing
him, grinning up at the sight.

“I’m sorry. When I planned dinner,
it was just for Cris and I. If I’d known you would be home, I’d
have cooked something else.”

He looked at me quizzically. “What
wouldya have cooked? Meat and potatahs?” I could hear the humor in
his voice. “Real men eat salad, L.K.”

I smiled at him, holding in my
laughter. “Oh, really? Is that why I found our crisper bare—you ate
all the veggies but left the frozen fries and processed foods for
me?”

He nodded vigorously as he flipped
the poultry once more. “That’s exactly what happened.”

I rolled my eyes in amusement. “Makes complete
sense.”

He smirked. “Hey, I left you
beeah.” He reached over the stove, turning the burner
off.

“
No you didn’t!” I laughed, “I
bought that yesterday!”

“I don’t know
about that,” he laughed back. “How’d ya know what kind I
drank?”

I watched as he transferred two
pieces of chicken onto our plates, grabbed forks, and then lifted
both up, setting them on the counter in front of me. He then turned
to grab a couple bottles of said beer. “Jessie told me.” He paused
slightly at the mention of her name, but recovered and took a seat
in the stool next to me. “I thought you’d stay with her
tonight.”

He opened my bottle, dropping the
cap to the counter, and then did the same to his before taking a
sip. He ate a few forkfuls of greenery before answering me. “That’s
what she figured, too.” He looked up, staring off into the empty
kitchen as he chewed absently. “She take good care of
you?”

I swallowed my bite, followed it
with a gulp of ale, and then smiled. “Yeah. Thanks for sending her
over. She’s really sweet and very funny.” As I told him about the
time I’d spent with Jess, he turned to me, smiling when I got to
the funny parts, nodding at others. “I like her,” I
finished.

“She’s great.” He tipped his
bottle back, taking three or four swallows before lowering it and
meeting my eyes. “I’ve known her since she was a kid. I used to
call her Jailbait, ‘cause that’s what she was.” He chuckled at the
memory. “She fuckin’ hated that name. She was all of fourteen or
fifteen, even though she thought she was a lot oldah, when she
decided she was gonna marry me. I was wicked fucked up still, so I
didn’t pay any attention, except for the fact that she was Tank’s
little sistah. She was just an annoyin’ pain in the ass that
wouldn’t go away.” He rubbed a hand over his face, as if struggling
with something, and then sighed.

“
Nevah thought she’d end up
working for me, or bein’ part of the club. She was too good for
this shit. She shoulda stayed away and married some yuppie that
would be home every night and give her a normal life.” His voice
was full of regret. I didn’t know what to say to that, positive
that she'd already told him that wasn't what she wanted, so instead
I focused on something else he’d said.

“Pretty fucked
up? Did you have a motorcycle accident?”

He shook his head. “Naw.”
Finishing off his food, he stood and grabbed my plate, carrying
them both to the sink. Realizing the conversation was over, I
picked up my bottle, ready to head downstairs, when he walked back
to me, two new bottles in his hand. He handed me one and tipped his
head toward the living room in silent beckoning. Sitting in the
easy chair next to the fireplace, he watched me as I sunk into the
comfort of the couch, leaned back onto a pile of pillows, and
stretched my legs out onto the cushions.